ALASKAN WOMEN PROTEST PALIN

Good job, Alaska! Over a thousand Alaskans protested Sarah Palin in Anchorage, making us believe that not everyone in that far northern state is a dumb religious fundamentalist who thinks one women is interchangeable with the next. Sure, there are plenty of American Taliban types dragging their knuckles and slouching toward the voting booth, but it's nice to know not everyone in the Great White North is fooled by the faux-folksy Palin manipulation.

Read a report HERE.

Meanwhile, Alaska lawmakers voted Friday to subpoena Gov. Sarah Palin's husband, and several aides and phone records in their investigation into Palin's firing of her public safety commissioner, setting up what one senator called a "branch-versus-branch smackdown." Her husband is refusing to testify.

The McCain campaign is resorting to desperate measures to block the legislative inquiry, even though it predates Palin's veep selection. Predictibly, McCain says the charges are "politically motivated." Must be the damn liberals, I guess, and they must have access to a time machine.

How dumb are we?



Meanwhile, Jimi Hendrix plays live in a Stockholm television studio in 1967. I admit this has nothing to do with Sarah Palin, but it helps to get that horrible Republican aftertaste out of my mouth. Besides, it's my blog and I can be non-linear if I want to! Play on, Jimi!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Happy Mother's Day, Mom! And all you mothers out there. Thanks for bringing us into this world, and putting up with years of worry and trouble and dirty socks and tantrums and weird ceramic things that are supposed to be ashtrays. Today is a special day, and we salute you!

To help celebrate, we've got "The Mothers of Invention," a seminal group that blew the minds of kids and censors back in the 1960s. Their fearless leader, musician and composer Frank Zappa, fought against mindless censorship and the PMRC ratings code until his dying day in 1993.


Here's Zappa on "Crossfire," arguing with screwheads about censorship. The exchange between Zappa and smug Conservative gasbag Robert Novak is priceless.


The follow-up show in 1987, with Zappa on CNN's "Crossfire" guest-hosted by Michael Kinsley. Here, Zappa disagrees with suits from the PMRC about censorship and the ratings system of music. The Mothers of Invention

GEORGE SHEARING

Ken Kesey once said George Shearing, the blind jazz piano player, was God. Regarding that statement, I'll remain agnostic -- I mean, he might be God. It's impossible to prove or disprove. Either way, he's definitely a great piano player. Here he performs "Swedish Pastry" with his quintet. Check it out.

THE WORLD EXPLAINED

Got religion?

Here's the "New Christian Science Textbook" from Matt Bors. Click to enlarge and study.


Man is the religious animal. He is the only religious animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion –- several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat, if his theology isn’t straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother’s path to happiness and heaven.

~ Mark Twain

Three quarters of the American population literally believe in religious miracles. The numbers who believe in the devil, in resurrection, in God doing this and that — it’s astonishing. These numbers aren’t duplicated anywhere else in the industrial world. You’d have to maybe go to mosques in Iran or do a poll among old ladies in Sicily to get numbers like this. Yet this is the American population.

~ Noam Chomsky

Matt Bors is an illustrator working in Portland. Thanks to World Gone Mad.